From the Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) (29 page)

He picked up the envelope then, tapping its edge on the desk. “If I may ask, Mr. Covington, whatever did you do to stoke Vienna’s ire that she would send someone to destroy your belongings, in turn enticing my son to seek compensation on your behalf—which I assume he did in no small part to your association with the fair Juliette?”

I tried not to frown when he called me “fair”—a descriptor that Lochlan often used when speaking to me. For some reason, Diarmid’s use of it rankled, while Lochlan’s did not.

“I decided it was way past time to quit,” Race replied matter-of-factly. “I’d done that bitch’s dirty work long enough. Hell, she couldn’t even be bothered the last few months to give me orders in person like she used to.”

Diarmid raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? Pray tell, from whom did you receive your instructions then? To whom did you tender your resignation?”

“This
fucktard leech named Merrick. He a friend of yours?”

“Race,” I admonished softly.

Our vampire host merely chuckled. “No one who works for Vienna Silk is a friend of mine, Mr. Covington—present company excluded, of course. After all, you’ve left her employ of your own volition and that raises my estimation of your character considerably. Though I daresay she wasn’t too pleased with your decision to terminate said employment.”

“My apartment was trashed and I now own little more than the clothes on my back. What do you think?” Race snapped.

Shaking his head, Diarmid only leaned forward to hand over the envelope. Race reached for it and after sitting back in his seat, looked inside and pulled out a cashier’s check from Silk Management Incorporated with his name on it, in the amount of ten thousand dollars as Lochlan had instructed.

“To be honest, I didn’t think she’d do it,” he said as he studied the check.

“Young man, that check was issued to buy time—Vienna is likely plotting some form of revenge against you, and perhaps myself as well. As Lochlan demanded it be sent here, she’s like to think I’ve stolen you away from her and that you are now working for me,” Diarmid told him.

“Which I most certainly am not,” Race retorted darkly.

“Indeed, though I daresay you would be wise to seek gainful employment soon, as that money won’t last and I’m fairly certain my son-in-law won’t take too kindly to his sister’s lover not being in a position to care for her as she should be cared for,” Diarmid said as he sat back in his chair.

“Thank you for your concern for my welfare, Mr.
Mackenna,” I jumped in, speaking before Race could reply lest he get any angrier. “But Mark is not your son-in-law yet, and he and Race are friends. My brother knows of the situation Race just walked away from, so he’ll certainly understand if it takes him time to find a good job.”

That irritating bemused smile returned. “Mark becoming my son-in-law—which will relate you and
I by marriage, as it so happens—is but a matter of time. You know that as well as I do.”

No thanks for the reminder
, I thought darkly, causing Race to snort. I certainly didn’t mind that Mark and Saphrona would eventually marry, but my being related to Diarmid, even tangentially, was not a factor of their relationship I really wanted to dwell on.

“Indeed,” I responded simply.

Race stuffed the check back into its envelope, then folded it and thrust it into his pocket. “Are we done here?”

Diarmid
raised an eyebrow, and then nodded. “Yes. My curiosity is satisfied and you have what you came for. I advise you to deposit or cash that straight away, as I’d not put it past Vienna to put a stop on it as early as tomorrow. All part of the game, you see.”

Race nodded as he stood, and I stood as well. After saying a polite goodbye to Saphrona’s father, we left the exorbitantly furnished office with its two walls of floor-to-ceiling glass and headed straight for the elevator. We didn’t speak until we were outside, at which time Race took a deep breath and said, “No offense to Saphrona, but her father is an asshole.”

I laughed. “You and Jake share an opinion of the man. He didn’t like him, either.”

“Though I hate to admit it, he’s probably right about the check. If I want Vienna’s money, I’d better get it in the bank today. Do you think the Charter branch back home could handle it?”

“My dad’s bank? Sure.”

Race looked surprised. “Your dad works at Charter National?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, he’s the manager there. You didn’t know that?”

He shrugged and headed for the car. “Yesterday he only mentioned ‘the bank’. And I
kinda remember he worked at one when we were kids, but I’d forgotten which one.”

I pulled my car keys from the pocket of my denim jacket and tossed them to him. “Your turn to drive, I want to be taken care of,” I said jokingly.

Race hit the Unlock button on the keyless remote and reached to open my door for me, then walked around the front of the car and got into the driver’s side. He growled at me when I laughed at how crunched up he looked in the seat, which was close to the wheel because of my height, and in his thoughts I heard him promising to get me back for laughing as he reached for the bar to move the seat back.

“Speaking of taking care of you,” he said as he put the key in the ignition and started the motor, “something else I hate having to admit that leech up there is right about is the fact that I need a job. Before you even say it I know you’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, and I remember that chick at Cool Beans saying something about offering you another one when they open up a shop in town. But it’s still my job as your…man, mate, boyfriend—whatever you want to call me—to provide for you, even if we actually end up sharing the expenses. And while it’s generous of Saphrona and Mark to put us up, there might come a day we want to get our own place.”

His speech was so earnest that I couldn’t make fun of it. Yes, I was capable of earning my own living and taking care of myself, but the fact that he was determined to do right by me as he felt a man should reminded me once again that while he may have done some awful things in the past, he was still a good man. The emotion behind his words flowed strongly across the new telepathic link we shared, and so I let my own feelings of love and gratitude flow back at him. Race’s chest swelled and he looked at me with a smile of wonder.

“I love you too, Juliette,” he said softly.

My breath caught in my throat—it was the first time he had said the words. Though I had determined within hours of meeting him again that I was already falling in love, I honestly hadn’t expected Race to say he loved me so soon. I’d thought he would need more time.

Too overcome with emotion to speak, I leaned across the console and kissed him deeply. Race returned my kiss,
then sat back abruptly with a sly grin on his face. “We need to get home,” he told me, signaling his intention to pull out into traffic. “Suddenly I want to show you just how much I love you.”

An ember of desire flared, and I knew he felt it too.
Yeah
, I thought as I hurried to buckle my seat belt.
We really need to get home
.

***

Though traffic was steady, we moved fairly quickly through the downtown streets of Columbus. I couldn’t help teasing Race with memories of our lovemaking, and he more than once growled at me and told me to stop it before I caused him to run up somebody’s tailpipe. With a sigh and a playful pout, I crossed my arms over my chest and looked out the window, purposely focusing on the cars and people we passed so I wouldn’t think about sex.

But soon I realized that a silver station wagon-style car the make and model of which I couldn’t recall kept flashing across my mind, and I couldn’t remember having seen one. I looked over at Race to find him casting a furtive glance at the rearview mirror.

“It’s a Dodge Magnum,” he said, his voice tight. “And it’s been following us ever since we left Mackenna’s.”

I stiffened in my seat, trying to see the car myself in my
sideview mirror. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure.
If not since we left the leech, then certainly for the last six blocks,” Race replied. “It stays one or two cars back, sometimes in our lane, sometimes in the lane next to us on my side.”

I turned in my seat to look over my left shoulder and caught sight of the Magnum moving over to the left. “Why would they be following us?” I said as I faced forward again.

“My bet is its Merrick or one of Vienna’s other flying monkeys,” he muttered. “Hang on, I’m gonna see if I can lose him.”

I grabbed the garment bar over my door in the nick of time, as Race suddenly made a sharp right-hand turn down a two-lane street. Thankfully we were in the curb-side lane and hadn’t cut anyone off, but I was compelled to look over my shoulder again as I heard horns behind us protesting anyway, and saw that the silver Magnum had changed lanes and was turning into the narrow street as well.

“Shit, they are following us!” I cried as the pursuing car roared closer.

W
e both cried out as the Magnum rammed the rear bumper of my car, throwing us both forward.

“Fuck!” Race bellowed.
“Jules, you alright?”

Adrenaline was now being pumped furiously through my blood, my heart hammering against my breast as a tiny spark of fear flared within me. But greater than the fear was another sensation, one I had to fight to control: my inner beast might be a dog, but right now she was a really pissed off dog that wanted nothing more than to bite the head off of our attacker. It was all I could do to keep from phasing right there in the car.

“I know how you feel,” Race growled, but before I could reply to his reading of my thoughts, the Magnum hit us again.

Though my seatbelt locked, preventing my crashing into the dashboard, centrifugal force snapped my head forward. Sharp pain shot down my neck and across my shoulders.
“Son of a bitch!” I hollered, reaching my right hand back up to the garment bar and raising my left to rub my neck.

Race suddenly jerked the wheel to the left, slamming me first into his shoulder and then into my door as he fought to right us. Through our bond, I sensed his thoughts and feelings, and my chest swelled when I picked up that my safety was his utmost concern. He wanted me out of harm’s way, which was of course exactly how I felt about him. I also detected his wish that he could just stop the car and confront the bastards chasing us, to find out what they wanted even if he had to beat it out of them. If I had not been with him, he would have done that already.

But I came first. Making sure I got out of this alive was tantamount.

The street we were on now was a narrow, one-way alley with cars parked along one curb. Race’s eyes darted between the road ahead of us and the rearview mirror, keeping track of the Magnum while he tried his best not to sideswipe the cars on my side of the road. Newspapers and other detritus flew into the air as we ran over it at breakneck speed, the Magnum still hot on our trail.

It rammed us a third time, forcing us into a sideways skid that sent us careening to the right. The corner of my front bumper and the passenger side mirror were crushed on impact, and a little canary yellow Beetle didn’t fare much better. Moments later we crossed an intersection and narrowly missed being hit by a dump truck; though the driver honked angrily, the close call afforded us a few precious seconds to get ahead of the Magnum, which had been forced to stop to let the truck pass.

“Baby, you all right?”
Race asked me.

I could hear—and feel—his concern for me. Though I had once feared being overwhelmed by such an intimate connection to another person, I was pleasantly surprised to instead find myself comforted by it. To not only hear the worry in his voice but to also feel what he felt made me feel cherished and loved. I used our connection to reassure him as best I could with my own feelings, though aloud I said, “I’m fine. Bit of whiplash, but I’m okay.
You?”

Race looked over at me with a tight smile.
“Right as rain, darlin’.” His eyes darted back up to the rearview mirror then, and he scowled. “Looks like the fucker got delayed by more than the truck, but he’s crossed the intersection now. Juliette, I think I have an idea how to end this, but it would involve—”

“—possibly totaling my car,” I finished for him, picking up on his idea almost as soon as the thoughts formed in his mind. He wanted to turn into the next cross street and then back into the Magnum as it passed. The operation would take precision timing.

“Say no and I scrap the plan,” he said. “But I need an answer, ‘cause the cockmunch is gaining on us again.”

Losing my car was nothing compared with the possibility of losing our lives. I took a deep breath and said silently,
Do it
.

Race nodded and I tensed for another hairpin turn, which he made a second later, once again pulling to the right. Slamming the break, we strained against our seatbelts as he quickly he threw the gearshift into reverse and his arm over the back of his seat, turning so that he could watch for our pursuers to pass.

We didn’t wait long. Less than two minutes had gone by before Race was suddenly flooring the gas pedal and we were speeding backward toward the silver car just cresting the corner of the brick building on my side of the street. For the first time I got a look at the driver as he started cranking his wheel to come in behind us, his eyes going wide with alarm when he saw that we were barreling his way. He slammed his own brakes almost instantly, but before he could throw the Magnum into reverse, metal and fiberglass were crunching metal and fiberglass.